DELRAY BEACH, FL (Boca Post) (Copyright © 2025) — Delray Beach politics is back in people’s inboxes this week, and it’s not subtle.
Two newsletters — The Delray Gazette and the similarly named Delray Guzzette — are still trading shots over the same handful of issues: the Downtown Development Authority, Mayor Tom Carney’s ongoing push against it, and the fact that Seat 2 on the City Commission is still sitting empty after former Vice Mayor Rob Long left.
Neither newsletter puts a real person on it. No editor. No publisher. No masthead. Just mass-email platforms, a reply-to address, PO boxes, and a lot of certainty about who’s right and who’s not.
This installment is mostly about the DDA.
The Gazette’s latest email frames things as an escalating fight between Carney and the Downtown Development Authority. It says a recent city audit found no fraud or misuse of taxpayer dollars, and it questions why the mayor keeps pressing the issue anyway. The Gazette says Carney has pushed for a second audit by the Florida Auditor General, and it references a Dec. 8 hearing in Tallahassee where state Sen. Mack Bernard discussed support for an audit.
Then the Guzzette shows up, and it’s aimed at one person.
Its new email is titled: “Casale’s DDA Double Standard: What’s She Hiding?” and it goes straight at Commissioner Juli Casale. The Guzzette argues Casale has one standard when she wants deeper scrutiny — and another standard when scrutiny lands on the DDA. It draws a contrast with her votes to terminate the lease with the former Old School Square operators, which it says she supported based on oversight and taxpayer concerns, but it says she resists similar scrutiny here.
The Guzzette also takes issue with how the Gazette is treating the city audit. It calls the audit limited, narrow, based on samples and controls. Not a full deep dive. The newsletter argues a state audit would go further, including reviewing whether certain expenses were even allowable. That’s the pitch. More review, more digging. And it suggests Casale shouldn’t be pushing back if everything is clean.
It’s gotten personal, basically. Not “here’s the policy,” but “why are you doing this,” and “what are you hiding.” That kind of thing.
The other running thread is Seat 2.
The Gazette recounts the Dec. 8 commission meeting where members tried to pick an interim commissioner to fill Seat 2 until the March 10 municipal election. It didn’t happen. The newsletter says only two applicants — Yvonne Odom and Price Patton — received nominations, and each nomination ended in a 2–2 split vote. Deadlocked. The Gazette says the commission gets one more attempt in January 2026, and if they split again, Seat 2 could stay vacant until the election.
The Guzzette also touches the vacancy and folds it into the bigger struggle. Not just about who gets appointed, but who’s steering things, who’s stalling things, who benefits from a missing vote. It frames it as part of the same fight over influence and narrative coming out of City Hall.
Even the lighter stuff gets pulled into the mix.
The Gazette notes a proposal floated toward the end of a long meeting to add a croquet court at Veterans Park, near the lawn bowling and shuffleboard area. It raises questions about cost, staffing, and the ongoing upkeep, and says city staff are expected to look at it further before anything moves.
Small item, but it’s still part of the theme. Who’s driving the agenda, what gets pushed, what gets questioned, what gets mocked.
By now the pattern is familiar. Delray residents are getting two sharply different takes on the same week of city politics, delivered by two newsletters with nearly identical names and no clear authorship.
One frames the DDA issue as the mayor escalating a war even after audit findings. The other frames it as Casale applying accountability when it suits her, and bristling when it doesn’t.
Seat 2 is still open. The DDA fight is still hot. And the inbox play-by-play keeps rolling in, whether anyone asked for it or not.
Source: Copies of newsletters emailed to Boca Post from The Delray Gazette (Constant Contact) and Delray Guzzette (Mailchimp).
Have You Been Getting These Emails?
If you’ve received newsletters from The Delray Gazette or The Delray Guzzette, we want to hear from you. Do you find them informative — or confusing? Does the lack of transparency matter to you? Let us know in the comments below.
